


For Whom to Wield the Sacred Flames

by Scarfinator



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: (something Bad happens to a character later down the road I'll just say that), (the divergence in question may be upsetting to some), F/F, Major Canon Divergence in One Character, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-03-22 16:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13767783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarfinator/pseuds/Scarfinator
Summary: The mantle of "Shepherd" was passed on to Rose, but its flames feel weak. Sorey has already burned away much of the calamity overshadowing the world, leaving her mere cleanup duties. She is restless under the sacred robes; there must be some sort of purpose for her to have taken up this burden. Some sort of great positive impact she can leave upon the world.Why not start with paying back the one she has come to love the most? Leaving an impact on her world first and foremost?Rose has promised Edna a miracle. A promise that Sorey failed to make good on. A promise to rescue Eizen once and for all, returning him to Edna's life no matter who or what stands in her way.





	1. The First Spark

“Guess she’s gone now.”

Rose took one last look at the capital fading into the horizon, then laid down across the wagon floor.

It wasn’t as if she expected Alisha to stick around. No matter what sappy words they had exchanged beforehand at the Elaine Ruins, it was true that in the end the two girls barely even knew each other. And as Hyland’s own princess knight, Alisha had more important things to attend to at that time than Rose’s silly Shepherd crusade. Hyland and Rolance needed to come to that peace agreement, didn’t they?

Still though. Their temporary reunion was a nice distraction from the overall drivel of Rose the Shepherd’s journey.

Having decided lying around was not what she wanted to do either, she propped herself up against some boxes. Now sitting upright, she took one of her daggers out of its sheath.

Toss. Spin. Catch. Toss. Spin. Catch.

Rose was no stranger to playing with death. Compared to all the brave, sometimes valiant but usually naught but reckless and foolish stunts she pulled, a simple game of repeatedly throwing a dagger in the air and trying to catch it by the hilt every time it came down was nothing to her. It was a long while since she had last failed to grab the hilt anyway, so she often forgot this little habit of hers was supposedly dangerous.

“One of these days you’re going to stab yourself.”

“Gah?! Where did you—”

As if right on cue, a soft but condescending voice reminded her. Edna grabbed the hilt of the dagger Rose had abandoned in midair out of shock from suddenly hearing her voice.

Rose slowly looked up to the small, delicate looking hand that had saved her from the botched dagger toss, eventually bringing her gaze to the eyes of its owner. She laughed sheepishly in the face of her savior. “Ahaha… Whoops, that was a close one.” Ignoring her seraph’s chiding glare, she smiled and continued. “You surprised me though; I thought you were still inside me?”

“Nope,” Edna said, handing Rose back the dagger. “I wasn’t just going to stare at the ceiling forever, so I came out while you were moping around.”

“Oh?” Rose cocked her head coyly as she sheathed the dagger once more. “You’ve sure been doing a lot of moping around yourself. Is it really any different to lay within your vessel?”

“If I’m going to laze around, it’ll be when and where I want to. At least I get to choose where I lay and which ceiling I look at.”

“Every wagon has just about the same ceiling,” Rose laughed. “But nah, I know what you mean. Get up when you want, lay back down when you want. Probably feels a lot better to be in control of yourself instead of just farting around in me all the time, yanno?”

A small smirk came to Edna’s face. “It sure does,” she said. The smile quickly gave way to her usual nonchalant expression, and she knelt down to sit next to Rose. “Speaking of things you want to do, that’s something we need to figure out. Soon. Real soon.”

Rose blinked and cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

“Let me put it this way,” Edna continued. “Just what are we even doing next? What’s the purpose of this journey?”

 _Right on point Edna,_ Rose thought. That girl sure knew where to hit. Now that there was no current reigning Lord of Calamity or other immediate crisis to worry about, all Rose—the new Shepherd—was really doing was going around purifying anything malevolent she could find. True, they had investigated some stuff with Camlann the other day with Alisha and that was pretty big. In the end though, that was only yesterday’s mission. What would tomorrow hold?

“I’ll take your silence as a sign you still don’t know,” Edna sighed. “Well, not like Sorey’s journey was free from this mindless drivel either. We knew from the start we wanted to knock Kittybeard off his high horse, but there was a whole lot of scrambling around the continent trying to figure out just how to do that first. Remember the goose chase Mayvin sent us on near the end? That was something else.

“You still need a purpose though. Sorey had defeating the Lord of Calamity. What’s yours?”

Rose had not quite considered it that way. But Edna was completely right; Rose had only truly come into Sorey’s journey when things were starting to pick up. _Imagine the snorefest Alisha had to go through,_ Rose thought to herself.

 _Then again, the dang woman finds everything fascinating. I’m sure it didn’t bother her._ She chuckled aloud as she reminisced about the princess they left behind once more.

That chuckle earned Rose a parasol jab to the side.

“GAH!!” She turned towards the increasingly impatient wielder of the parasol. “Edna, what the hell?!”

“Answer the question instead of frolicking away in dreamland. Now that Sorey’s done with his journey, what are you going to do with yours?”

“Ow… Uh, well…” Knowing she had run out of time to think, Rose frantically grasped for an answer. “Maybe we can figure it out along the way just like Sorey did? I mean, like you said, it got interesting eventually right?”

“Nope. Wrong answer.” Edna crossed her arms and scowled. “Like I said, find your purpose before wandering around. At least he had ‘defeat the Lord of Calamity’ as his goal from the very beginning. You? Your journey has been nothing but having us aimlessly prowl the continent for hellions, hoping we find something.

“You need a purpose, Rose. Even Alisha found hers, didn’t she? What do you want to do?”

No matter how much she scrambled for an answer, she just couldn’t think of what to say that Edna might like. After all, if Rose was being honest with herself? She just wanted to go back to the Scattered Bones and do the one thing she did best: helping along the greater good through the shadows. Clear orders she didn’t have to search for. She did have to at least investigate the credibility of their orders before carrying them out. But honestly? It was work that made her feel accomplished. And man did she miss the merchant work for the Sparrowfeathers she got to do as their front. Good times.

Eguille kicked her out and took over as soon as she became a Shepherd, though. According to him, now that she could do some good for the world that didn’t involve killing others it would be in her best interest to take advantage of it. Fair point, she supposed. Still didn’t leave her any less lost.

How could she best help people now… How could she best help people now…

“Ugh. Well, if you can’t think of one now just get back to me later. Not too later, though.” Edna stood up and walked away from Rose to the corner of the wagon, then laid right back down. “Doesn’t even have to be anything big. Just keep us entertained.”

Those last few sentences sparked an epiphany for Rose. If you really got down to it, the crux of the matter was that Rose was a girl who wanted to make the world a better place. Not only that, but she wanted to see results. Sooner rather than later, thank you very much.

Would it not be easier to see results the closer to home they were?

“I want to find a way to purify dragons,” Rose declared.

Edna bolted upright from where she lay to balk at Rose. Did she hear her right? She had expected the human to either come up with something silly to answer her question with, or nothing at all. But for her to come back to Eizen? Of all the world’s problems she could be solving, Eizen? Why bring him up now?

“And what good would that do our cause?” she asked.

“Oh come on Edna. You know why I brought it up. If we have nothing better to do anyway, why not finally find some time to save your brother? If we don’t act now, we just might get swept up again in something huge like Sorey did. And then his promise will never be fulfilled.”

“And that’s exactly why I asked,” Edna groaned. “You do realize what kind of mess you’re getting yourself into, right?”

“Hell yeah I do. I’m getting into a mess that will make you happy once we’re through with it! Win-win, right?”

 _What a do-gooder,_ Edna thought. Sure it was a Shepherd’s job to help people out, so of course something with that job description would attract those types. But this one sure had a habit of biting more off than she could chew.

“If purifying dragons was so easy, why do you think no one’s been able to do it even once for this long? Don’t be surprised if this takes you a whole lifetime, human.”

Rose pout and puffed her cheeks. “Stuff like this is basically what my whole life’s gonna be from now on anyway. Might as well put it to a cause I care about.”

 _From now on,_ Rose had just said. Edna knew better than to buy that, of course; from the moment that girl was ‘born'—or rather, taken into the Windriders from an inconsequential home she could no longer remember—she had done nothing but devote her life to others. Every last bit of it. Becoming a Shepherd changed nothing at her core. When she was not outright offering herself at the stake, others were there burning her themselves. And Rose thanked them. Just because what they did to her benefited someone else.

Good grief, was Rose strange.

“And why would you care so much about this that you’d devote your whole life’s purpose to it?” Edna asked.

“Because you’re my good friend and I owe you one big time for sticking around this long. Do I need another reason?”

 _Her good friend, huh..._ Again: what a weird human. But at the same time, a normal, foolish human nonetheless. It was nice to come across a marginally less selfish one sometimes, so she found herself quite attached to Rose for that reason. That kind of altruism was… alluring, in a way. But it still pissed her off.

Rose picked up on Edna’s exasperation before she could even say anything. “Well, I mean if you want to get technical, I owe it to Sorey too. He made the promise first, after all!”

That made Edna no happier. Well, at least Rose tried. At least she tried to get Edna to accept she was doing it primarily for her.

“How about this…” Rose began. “Think about all the other dragons roaming Glenwood who might need help! If we found a way to purify them that could be done again and again and again, we’d never have to worry about seraphim getting corrupted anymore.”

Edna’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Uh, I mean… We’d still worry about it, of course! Less cleanup to do later, after all, and man is preventing it from happening in the first place better. Dragons are a real pain to fight, yanno?”

More eyebrow furrowing from Edna, and this time she closed her eyes simultaneously. She no longer appeared angry, though. Rather, she was in deep thought, considering how to take and respond to Rose's words.

“…Alright, fine.” Edna walked back to Rose’s side to sit with her once more. “I’ll accept that much. You’re not wrong; Glenwood isn’t exactly crawling with dragons, but finding a way to bring them back from their corruption would still do us a lot of favors. Not just Eizen, and not just me. Every seraph alive could get in on this.”

She smiled as she fiddled with the normin charm on her parasol. “It’s not like this is the worst thing you could have chosen, either. If I think back on it, it really was annoying I got dragged that far into Sorey’s journey without him making even one bit good on his word. Especially since I only came along in the first place because he said he’d make it happen.”

Rose gave Edna a warm smile. “Does this mean you’re happy with my choice?”

Edna returned the smile. “Sure. This works just fine.”

“Alright, nice!!” Rose cheered. “Maybe this will help spice my duties up a bit! I can’t wait to see what we can do!” Grinning wider than she had this entire conversation, she held up her pinky finger to Edna.

“Here’s to saving Eizen!”

“…Uh.”

“What? Never done a pinky promise before, Edna?”

Edna scoffed. “Of course I have. But the last time I did it was… Too many centuries ago to count. That kind of stuff is child’s play.”

“Come on Edna!” Rose pouted. “Pinky promises are timeless! Just the act of doing them makes the promises feel all the more real, no matter how dang old you are!”

That did it. Edna firmly brought her own hand up to Rose’s and grasped her pinky in her own. Perhaps a bit harder than necessary.

“I’m glad that convinced you but… I never did get it. Why are you so sensitive about your age when you’re a seraph? You guys don’t have nearly the same concept of aging as we humans do.”

Edna crossed her arms and turned away. “Maybe I’ll tell you when you stop taking advantage of my business like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I'm sure it was easy enough to figure out but this fic assumes the "Kill Eizen" sidequest was never done.
> 
> That's not the canon divergence I talked about in the additional tags. That's much later, and leaving Eizen alive isn't canon divergence anyway if its optional, right?? ...Right? (I mean it IS true Sorey probably realistically wouldn't have had time for that no matter how ready Zaveid was ready to off Eizen for, uh. His own good or whatever)
> 
> Even if it is supposed to be a technically canon sidequest im still writing this okay? Okay. Rose and Edna are gonna do their best to bring him back so let's all cheer them on!!


	2. Rekindled Embers

Within two nights, Shepherd Rose and her seraphim had gotten about halfway along to Marlind. It was far from an ideal time to make, but there was no particular rush. They were only going there for more mindless hellion hunting, nothing more. Never mind that, they had no room to complain about anything; these were the Sparrowfeathers’ wagons they were riding along in, after all. Rose only got them all a free ride through her privilege of having served as the Sparrowfeathers’ beloved former boss. And being a merchant guild, there were plenty of stops along the way for them to make. The slow travel time was a non-issue.

“Figures they’d set up camp right here,” Edna muttered somberly into the cool night air.

The Sparrowfeathers opted to camp near Spiritcrest’s base in the end. Rose was the only one of the humans who knew its significance, of course, so it was certainly a coincidence. And they were not anywhere near close enough for her brother to come down and do anything to them.

Still though. She found it irritatingly ironic.

Edna gazed up the length of Spiritcrest, the mountain she had spent so many decades isolated upon. Miserable, rocky, devoid of any life whatsoever. Just like everything she felt during the time she spent there.

She had no room to feel sorry for herself though. After all, anything she went through during her stay there would not even qualify as a fraction of what her brother had no doubt experienced for those two centuries. In fact, had Rose not offered to help her out in Sorey’s stead, there was a large part of her that would gladly have gone through it again.

But by now, she knew that was not an option regardless of how she felt. There was no use in thinking like that anymore. She was too accustomed to life outside a dragon’s crushing domain, for one. Going back would be more trouble than it was worth. Especially because that brought her to the next point: Moping around is useless in the end. No matter how easy it is to do. No matter how often she still found herself on the verge of falling back into the habit.

Traveling with Sorey taught her that insurmountable obstacles were scarcer than one would initially believe. Even if he never did surpass the obstacle of purifying Eizen in the end, she trusted Rose to carry on with his same foolhardy yet somehow fruitful determination.

_Except she’s even worse than he ever was,_ she thought with a warm smile.

_I’m finally going to see you again, Eizen..._

“Seems you’re in high spirits. Reminiscing?”

Edna jolted slightly at the sound of Zaveid’s voice from behind her. Just ever so slightly.

She composed herself and slowly turned around to face him. “Oh good. I was going to try and find you before you did anything stupid again.”

Zaveid laughed. “Hah! Now when have I ever done anything stupid?”

A sizeable smirk spread across Edna’s lips. “Oh, I can count quite a few. Trying to fight hellions after downing more than a few glasses of whiskey. Hitting on taken women. Thinking Dezel’s old hat even slightly matches your own outfit. Pretty much everything you did before you joined Sorey’s journey, and then some after the fact.”

The target of her admonishment shrugged and laughed again. “So I’ve made a few mistakes in life. Big deal. Ease up on me, would you?”

Edna’s smirk abruptly left, and an icy glare took its place.

“How about I bring up a more relevant incident? Perhaps, the time you tried to convince Sorey to help you kill my brother. Without telling me.”

Zaveid’s demeanor went cold as well. “…Eavesdropping, huh.”

“Does it matter if I was?” Edna shrugged. “I wasn’t going to say anything back then unless you actually went through with it. After all, at the time I thought you may actually have had a point. Sorey’s refusal to help you was enough to push me away from considering it, but I was close. I was close to going along with you. And it sickens me.”

“’Sickens you’, huh…” Zaveid glowered down at Edna. “So you don’t think I have a point anymore. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Not even one.”

“Then you know nothing about your brother or what’s good for him.” Zaveid started for the mountain, but Edna was far quicker than him. Sidestepping in front of him as he tried to walk away, she shoved him into the ground.

“Why don’t you tell me about him then? Tell me everything I need to know. I assure you, I can knock down every last one of your supposed ‘points’.”

After he regained his bearings, Zaveid began to stand back up. “You’re pretty damn strong for such a delicate looking young lady, you know th—GUH?!”

A large cluster of stones embedded themselves into Zaveid’s stomach and smashed him back to the hard ground. They were shot from the tip of Edna’s parasol, which she brandished at him as he lay.

“You’re staying right there. I’m far from done with you. …In fact, don’t even bother telling me about my own brother. I’ll do it for you.”

Ignoring her opponent’s groans of pain, Edna went on. “So my brother taught you that ‘sometimes death is the only salvation’, huh? Wise words, but ones put into practice by two stupid men. It’s supposed to mean death is a last resort that should be occasionally considered rather than completely avoided, not something you fall back on when you don’t feel like trying anymore.”

“Who the _flying fuck_ are you to say I didn’t tr—”

More rocks were fired into Zaveid’s abdomen. “I said shut up and listen.” Edna took a sharp, deep breath, then continued. “When you want to save someone, you find a way to do it. If that doesn’t work, you look for another way. A thousand tries later, and you find a thousand more. Only THEN when all else fails can you say your cause is lost. And for the record, I wouldn’t call wandering the continent for two centuries killing every hellion except Eizen ‘trying’.”

“Eizen still told me… told US to—”

“Eizen doesn’t know what he wants!” Edna yelled. No rocks this time, but Edna’s uncharacteristic outburst had much the same effect on him. “Don’t forget you two made that promise before Maotelus came to power. Back then any hellion was the same as a dragon—a lost cause from the moment it came into being. Say all you want about the strength of a promise between men. It doesn’t mean a thing when the sands of time have eroded it away. When a new, stronger promise has taken its place.”

“…You’ve sure got a hell lot more drive in you right now than I’ve ever seen,” Zaveid wheezed. “What happened to the old days of moping around on Spiritcrest? Doing nothing but wasting away as you guarded over a living corpse? It’s not like you ever did anything for him either.”

Edna placed her free hand upon her hip. “I’m well aware I’m not one to talk. But those miserable, pathetic days of mine are over. They ended the day Sorey took me away from that mountain, even if I didn’t know it yet. And my time at Rose’s side will ensure I never look back.”

Zaveid smirked, intrigued but doubtful. “What do you plan to do about it? What’s this ‘new, stronger promise’ that’s more important than mine?”

“Rose came to me yesterday and told me she plans to use this time of relative peace on Glenwood to save Eizen, and I agreed to help. To put it another way, I see your promise between men and raise you a promise between women.”

Silence. Then a barrage of deafening laughter and guffawing from Zaveid.

“Hah! That’s an awful lot of faith you’re putting in one human. Especially after Sorey didn’t help in the end.”

“Maybe so. But Rose is just the kind of human who can do it. Stupid enough to attempt the impossible. Strong enough to perhaps succeed. Much like Sorey, except even worse.” A tender smile formed across Edna’s lips. “ …Which makes her better, as far as her part in our promise goes.

“Anyway. I’ll be giving our new Shepherd a chance to prove herself. I suggest you do the same, lest you make big ol Eizen’s sister cry. You know he doesn’t like people who make me cry. Even if he would rather be killed, I’m sure you’d at least like to avoid him pummeling you from the afterlife straight down to hell over me crying.”

“Eizen and I will both be in hell, Edna. There’s no going any lower than that.”

Edna rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. “Oh cry me a river. Quit the bleak dramatics and get back to camp. Rose should spill the news to the rest of the seraphim any time now, and I expect you to go along with it.” Finally satisfied, she withdrew her parasol and started back towards camp.

_Ugh, I think I’m beginning to get whatever the brain disease humans have is supposed to be,_ she thought to herself on the way back. But as much as she hated to acknowledge it, she had no choice at this point but to admit the possible “brain disease” felt quite nice, in a way. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was too long since there was something she truly was passionate about. It was a breath of fresh air.

She had to exert caution, though. Relishing in this kind of thrill and excitement was what allowed her idiot brother Eizen to be seduced into human society in the first place. The human society that was his downfall.

Just Rose’s company was fine, though. That’s all she’d allow, and also all she wanted. The thought of leaving Rose’s side at this point was more painful for Edna to consider than becoming a fool-turned-dragon herself. She had placed too much of her fate in that woman’s hands, after all. So she had to see it through to the end.

As for what came after the promise was fulfilled… Perhaps she would miss Rose if their paths split there. She didn’t dislike her in the slightest, even if her human stupidity did come as an annoyance from time to time. They got along well enough in casual conversation, more than Edna ever did with Sorey. Whenever she forgot Rose was human—which had started to happen more often than she liked—she realized just how well they clicked. She couldn’t really say the same for Sorey honestly. He was… not a bad person. But he also was not Rose.

Genuine attachment to a human was not something Edna wanted to admit to. But it had become harder and harder to hide behind excuses like “I’m following her because she amuses me”, or “I’m keeping a foolish human in line”, or “because this girl is going to save my brother”. For one, why would a human be so amusing her that she would dedicate her life to her cause? Surely there were more productive and far more amusing things to pursue. What was the point in keeping a human in line if she hated humans so much? Might as well let them all rot instead of feeling pity.

And why would she have such strong faith in a human to handle the monumental task of saving Eizen? Especially when another failed her mere months before?

She stopped her thoughts there. It was best she not think too hard about it, lest she actually outright admit how important Rose was her.

Behind her, Zaveid remained laying across the floor as she walked away. The sound of her boots against stone were as audible as ever from the hard ground, and they brought Eizen to mind. Those had been his boots too at one point, after all.

If he thought about it, nothing Edna said to him had been technically wrong. Maotelus and Sorey had both proved the impossible to be surmountable, and it was true he had not made good on his promise to Eizen anyway. Why turn over a new leaf now? And though it was clear as day the two Shepherds’ idiocy had rubbed off on Edna big time, honestly? It was contagious as all hell; he was starting to feel it too and even without human influence Zaveid knew himself to still be pretty damn stupid.

“A promise between men versus a promise between women, huh… You’re on, girls. You’re on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gasp. A fuck word.
> 
> Ironic I bring the rating down upon publishing the first chapter where a character drops an F bomb but uhh. About that; my exact fic plans keep changing in my head but at this point I really think the mature rating would have been wayyyy excessive so its staying at teen for the time being
> 
> Anyway press F to pay respects for Zaveid. Its dubious whether he deserves it or not but either way thanks for reading


	3. The Fire Blazes Anew

“Lailah. Lailah. We need you to get up for a bit.”

“Snnnzzz… Mmm…”

Mikleo groaned and put a hand to his forehead. It seemed the menial tasks always fell to him these days. Why did he have to end up finding Lailah first? Why did he get saddled with this instead of Rose? That woman was impossible to wake up once she was comfortable. And boy, was she ever comfortable at that moment.

Not that he could blame her; it was true Rose had asked them to get up in the middle of the night. There was no use worrying about her questionable decisions on when to hold meetings though. Right now he just needed Lailah to get up.

Next plan of action: shake her around just a bit. “Rose needs to speak to us all about something! Wake up!”

Still nothing. He hated waking Lailah up, but he was not about to admit defeat. Not this time. He grit his teeth; he never liked being rough with the others, but there was nothing left to do.

He had to yell.

“LAILAH!! WAKE THE HELL UP!!”

That was not Mikleo’s voice. Not even close. He never even got a chance to take the deep breath necessary to muster such a guttural roar, and the wording was far coarser than anything he would have even imagined choosing for Lailah.

Whoever it was, it came from right next to him and nearly made him fall off the wagon. Or rather, he _did_ fall off the wagon. Lucky him, the voice’s true owner pulled him back up before he could go any further, so as far as he was concerned it didn’t count!

“W-when did you get here?!” Mikleo sputtered.

Rose laughed in the face of his terror. “Have you forgotten who I am, Meebs? Sneaking around is my specialty.”

“Hmm.” Mikleo put his hand on his chin. “Yeah, that’s true. I guess I shouldn’t put it past y—” He froze midsentence.

“WAIT, HOLD ON!! _'MEEBS'_?!?!”

He got nothing from Rose but a malicious grin. “Ah hey. I think your complaining was loud enough to do the trick.”

Lailah slowly sat up from where she laid. “Oh no… the hedgehogs are all gone.”

Mikleo and Rose blinked and spoke in unison. “…Hedgehogs?”

“Yes, the hedgehogs…” Lailah was slurring her words, and on the verge of tears. “They were curled up so cutely in their sleep, and then in the blink of an eye…” Her eyes shot open and she gasped. It seemed she had finally returned to reality. “Oh my! I’m so sorry! What was I talking about?”

“Nothing important. Just. You talking in your sleep,“ Mikleo said.

“Are you sure?” Lailah wiped the tears from her eyes. “It looks like I might have cried. Was I having some sort of nightmare?”

“Um… Maybe?” Rose tried to think back on what she saw, but found nothing. “Hard to tell honestly. Anyway, let’s get going. I’ve got something important to tell you all.”

Rose and Mikleo hopped off the wagon together. Lailah rose groggily from where she had been sleeping and followed them away from camp.

As soon as Mikleo got his chance, he turned to Rose. “Seriously though… ‘Meebs’?!”

“You don’t like it? Huh. I thought you might have. I know you don’t like Edna’s ‘Meebo’ because it sounds cutesy, right? But I wanted to get in on the whole nickname business, so that’s what I came up with.”

Mikleo glared at her. “That’s a lie and you know it. You’re poking fun at me just like she does. Look, I don’t like any of these nicknames ok? It’s not because they’re ‘cutesy’; it’s because they sound ridiculous.”

Rose puffed her cheeks in mock discontentment. “Alrighty then, Mikbeeo. No fun allowed, I guess.”

“That’s righ—Hey, you just did it again!! You really have been spending too much time with her lately…”

Following closely behind, Lailah looked upon the two bickering back and forth with pure bliss alight on her face. “Ah, youth~!” she sighed. “What I wouldn’t give to come up with some nicknames for him myself!”

“Please don’t—"

“Oh!!” Rose cut him off. “Could you?! I could always use some help with this kinda thing, and I bet you’d be real good at it too!”

“Hmmmmm…” Purposefully drawing out her pondering, Lailah slowly crossed her arms and playfully cocked her head. “How aboooouut…”

“Save it for later. You know I’m always for giving Meebo hell, but we’ve got more important things to worry about.”

Edna appeared before her three companions on the rocky trail out of seemingly nowhere. Her appearance heralded surprised gasps from all three of them.

“About time someone here had some sense!” Mikleo yelled indignantly. “And how about we pick it up ‘never’ rather than ‘later’?”

His pleas went unanswered and ignored. “If you’re looking for Zaveid, he’s right up ahead." Edna gestured towards the trail behind her. “He should be coming back… Hopefully soon.”

Rose looked up the trail. No signs of him. “How far did he go out? Do you know what he was doing?”

“Picking fights,” Edna told her. “Just like he always does.”

“Ah. Gotcha.” Rose nodded. That was all she needed to know. “Well, if he’s coming back anyway why don’t we all sit around for a bit? We’ve got most everyone anyway.”

The Shepherd and her seraphim moved just a bit off the trail and sat on the hard ground.

“Well, you know him,” Edna said. “He won’t be back for a long time yet, so might as well just tell everyone what’s going on now. You snooze you lose, and I’m sure Meebo and Lailah are dying to know at this point.”

Mikleo jumped in place at her words. “Wait, you already knew, Edna?!”

“Sure did,” she shrugged. “She came to me first, actually. What of it?“

“Well, I’m just wondering what it could be possibly be that she’d tell you before she came to us about it! It’s true you two have gotten close lately, but no matter how much she likes you it doesn’t—”

“Rose! Tell them about our plans for the future already before this moron can run his mouth any further!” Edna’s voice was just a touch louder and higher than normal, and even through the dark of the night it was clear her face had turned just a tad red.

Her reaction took Rose aback; while it was not ultimately a significant change in her demeanor, it was enough for her to at least pick up on. It was no secret Edna did not particularly care for humans, and Rose never questioned her on that. After all, as an assassin she had seen the worst humanity had to offer for herself; how could she blame Edna for thinking they were a shitty bunch? She wasn’t wrong.

Still though, it hurt to see Edna so ashamed of their friendship. Nothing she could do about it though. After all, Rose was no exception to the norm.

Knowing she had run out of time to put off the announcement, she took a deep breath. Guess it was finally time to tell everyone else; how would they take it, she wondered? It weighed on her mind quite a bit, wondering if the others would consider it too frivolous of a task for the Shepherd to focus the majority of their efforts on.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that we haven’t been doing anything really important lately, huh?”

Lailah shook her head. “That’s not true, Rose. What we’re doing right now is certainly not as riveting as Sorey’s journey was, that is undeniable. But maintaining peace while it lasts is, in a way, even more valiant of a task than stopping an existing Lord of Calamity.”

“I never said it wasn’t important at _all_ ,” Rose puffed her cheeks in annoyance. “Just. Not _really_ important. At least not compared to his journey. And I definitely never said we’re going to stop. We’ll just make it side gig for a while as we focus on something else.

“Anyway! I know you all know this by now, but just about every type hellion out there is purifiable. Even if some individual Hellions are impossible or at least incredibly difficult to purify, there’s records of every category having been purified. Without exception. Well, there IS one exception. But we’re going to make history and record purifying THOSE kinds of hellions too.”

THOSE kinds of hellions… Mikleo and Lailah shot wide at those words. As soon as she spoke them, they immediately knew what Rose was trying to say. “Wait, what are you thinking of doing?!” They both gasped in unison.

“Dragons! We’re gonna learn how to purify dragons!” Rose grinned from ear to ear. “It’ll be a huge help to—Uh… Lailah?”

A grin to put Rose’s to shame had spread across Lailah’s face, and she had one hand over her mouth in a futile effort to cover it. She was clearly stifling… laughter? Rose's Prime Lord’s reaction to hearing the plan was… to laugh at her?! Why was she laughing? This was clearly not a laughing matter. This was about helping someone in need, damn it. …Or rather, lending a hand to seraphim as a whole. In the end, anyway.

Mikleo and Edna had picked up Lailah’s paper-thin attempts to hide her laughter as well. While Mikleo merely appeared befuddled with her reaction, Edna appeared outright upset.

It was Mikleo who questioned her first. “Lailah, why are you laughing about this?!”

And it was Edna who spoke next. “Yes, what do you think is so funny, Lailah? Is it really that weird for Shepherds to research better methods of purification?”

All their questioning did was make Lailah laugh harder. It was a gentle enough laugh, but one she could no longer conceal nor care about concealing.

“Aha… ha…!! Ha…” She finally composed herself, and then spoke normally. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put down your idea in the slightest. It’s just that… It all makes sense now! I was wondering why you were being so secretive about this.”

Rose tilted her head. “Secretive?”

Lailah nodded. “Secretive. You didn’t think we would approve of this, did you? You were worried we’d think helping a dear friend would be too frivolous a task for a Shepherd to devote their cause to, weren't you?”

“Isn’t it selfish though?” Rose asked. “I mean, I had to bring up how making purifying dragons a possible thing might help other seraphim-turned-dragons out before Edna agreed to let me do it.”

“Yes, that is certainly true,” Lailah said. “And even if we consider the added benefits of helping other seraphim who have been turned into dragons, it still is a largely selfish endeavor. But even so, it’s just as you said. There’s nothing pressing for us to do right now for the greater good, so I think it would be just fine to focus on helping the lesser good! …Well, that is, us.”

“Really?” Rose inquired. “I didn’t think you’d go along with us on this. Usually you’re all about the many over the individual type stuff; I thought you’d be like ‘a Shepherd shouldn’t be so selfish!’ or at least go ‘don’t focus too much on this!’ or. Something else like that.”

Lailah glanced aside. “Yes… Yes, that is the duty of a Shepherd. The many over the one, and the sacrifice of your own desires for the greater good. That is what makes the task a burden.”

She paused, then looked back to Rose and continued. “But regardless, you can’t completely neglect yourself nor those close to you. No matter how heavy the burden of a Shepherd is, no human—no living being—can survive on mere selflessness.”

“And it’s just as you said.” Lailah’s face softened into a warm smile. “The world no longer has an immediate need for a Shepherd in the way it needed Sorey. I would be more than happy to help both you and Edna with this.”

Rose blinked. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. But are you sure? I mean… I mean… You know how you reacted when I first said we were gonna do this! Mikleo did the same thing! This could end up leading nowhere, and actually probably WILL lead nowhere.”

“But you still brought it up,” Mikleo retorted. “Doesn’t that mean you still think you can do it?”

“I’m just speaking for you guys…” Rose explained. “I definitely wanna do this, and I’m definitely gonna find a way, but—"

“Then what’s the problem?”

The voice came from neither of the four who were present. But rather, from a previously uninvolved individual. Zaveid had just returned.

“Ah,” Edna sighed. “You’re back.”

“Where have you been this whole time?” Mikleo asked.

Zaveid shrugged. “Just taking a night stroll. The usual.”

Rose snickered. “Picking fights again?”

“Hah! Me? Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Edna rolled her eyes. “Get on with it. What were you going to say to Rose?”

Zaveid laughed, then turned to Rose. “Like I said: What’s the problem? Everyone else is saying you can do it, and YOU sure seem to think you can do it! So I’d like to see you give it a shot. And besides…” Just a hint of sincerity crossed his face. ”You made a promise, didn’t you? Best follow up on that, or you’ll make poor little Edna cry.”

Edna shot dagger eyes at Zaveid. “I’m not going to cry. If she wusses out on us, I’m just going to drag her back; she doesn’t have an excuse like Sorey did.”

“Wuss out? Now that’s something _I_ definitely wouldn’t dream of!” Rose laughed heartily. “Trust me. You’ve got my back on this, Edna.”

Edna smirked at Rose. “You’d better. I’ve got no choice but to count on you, after all.”

“So we’ve established we’re going to do this. That’s good, and I have your back on this as well Rose,” Mikleo said with a smile. “That said though… It’s one thing to say what you’re going to do, and another to find the way there. Where are we going to start?”

“Ahaha… Yeah, that’s true.” Rose shifted her legs sheepishly, her laughter going nervous. “I, well… Let’s think about where we are right now! We’re going as far as Marlind with the Sparrowfeathers, right? Maybe Marlind would have something for us to look at.”

“I suppose it would be worth a shot but…” Lailah paused to think. “Marlind is really more known for its artistic history, isn’t it?”

“My next best guess woulda been to raid the royal library for history books or ancient texts or something though, and…” Rose pouted. “We just left the capital. We’d just be losing more time if we went back now! So I think we should work with what we’ve got.”

“Books won’t be of much help here,” Zaveid said. “The whole reason we're doing this is that no one’s ever purified a dragon, so people in the past aren’t gonna have the answers.”

“She has a point though,” Mikleo interjected. “While there won’t be any actual records of how to purify dragons, there may be hints leading towards how to do it.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Rose said. “Like, for example, maybe there’s some legend about extra powerful Shepherds that we can try and—”

Edna groaned, interrupting Rose. “Ugh, please. Can we do this later? It’s too late at night for these aimless thinking sessions.”

“This is all for you though, Edna,” Lailah said. “Don’t you want to get a better idea of what we’ll be doing from now on?”

“Like I said: this is aimless. We’re not going to know what we’re doing until we get to Marlind anyway, if even then. So we might as well go get some rest so we can be ready for the road ahead.” Without waiting for a reply, Edna stood up and started back for the camp.

Rose sighed. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. We’ll find some way to do it.” The Shepherd and the rest of her seraphim got up themselves, allowing Edna to lead the way back to camp.

It would have been foolish for Rose to not admit she had some concerns. Studying history and mythology had never been a strong suit of hers. She thought back to the times she would ridicule Sorey and Mikleo for their intense interest in historical topics, and laughed just slightly to herself. Guess she would have to be the geek of the group now. That is, she absolutely HAD to be if she had any desire whatsoever to help Edna out in the end. And she more than certainly did.

Not that there was any use worrying about such things. There was no turning back now; the promise had been made. And if nothing else, she at least had an unexpectedly large amount of support from her other friends.

She was not about to complain. Not this early in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now that Mikleo and Lailah have finally shown up the chara tags are now accurate! Hooray
> 
> Sorry for the long-ass delay in this update. I keep writing stuff from later in the fic so I can procrastinate on actually writing stuff I can publish right away—Uh. I mean. So I can get a better idea of what the earlier chapters need to be like. Whoops. (I MEAN IT WORKS AND WRITING OUT OF ORDER LIKE THIS IS A VALID METHOD OF WRITING but also I kinda overdo it and am legit procrastinating lol...)
> 
> At least that means you'll be getting rapid fire updates later down the road probably since so much is already written? So look forward to that, and if you've come this far thanks again for reading!


	4. Like a Spreading Brush Fire

Soon after Rose spoke with her seraphim at Spiritcrest, their ride–the Sparrowfeathers–arrived in Marlind to set up shop. Seeing as this was where Shepherd Rose would once more part ways with them, she was not happy about their arrival. And although she attempted to delay their parting by assisting them in selling wares to the townsfolk, Eugile and company insisted she do no more than help them with basic setup. 

Thus, it was once more time to leave her old family behind and focus on her new task. Upon being shooed away by the Sparrowfeathers, Rose was to take her seraphim to Marlind’s landmark tree to discuss what to do next.

Edna had already gone ahead while Rose was arguing with the merchants. While she had attempted to urge Rose to just give it up and get on over to the meeting place, she quickly realized no amount of urging could get her to throw in the towel. Especially when Edna being imperceivable to the average human eye meant that Rose couldn’t really hold a proper argument in front of the Sparrowfeathers anyway.

So she left her there, hoping she’d take the hint and give up.

She had been sitting at the giant tree at the center of the town for quite some time, with nothing but her parasol’s normin charm to keep her company. It served as a very good stress ball—whatever the toy was stuffed with was far firmer than what most stuffed toys contained, so it did its job quite well—but for obvious reasons served little other purpose.

So to speak, she did at least have her thoughts to keep her company as she waited. Rose had done well in putting off the actual task at hand and building excitement for the journey ahead. But the time had come to finally put those plans into action; only so much fanfare could be built up before something finally had to be done.

Edna knew that from the start, of course. And had this been the start to any other journey, she would have almost certainly called Rose out on it long ago. But considering this particular mission was to hopefully end in Eizen’s purification, even Edna had allowed herself to get caught up in the hoopla. Even if she mostly kept the excitement to herself.

Would Rose live up to the hopes she had built up around her? Edna could not say for sure. She would like to believe Rose would come through for her, but her cynicism would not give way completely.

Just as she was beginning to suspect her tactic of “make Rose follow her” had failed, Rose and the rest of her seraphim had come back.

“Talk about a bunch of slowpokes,” Edna groaned as everyone gathered around. “I take it I was right?” 

Rose briefly glared at her, but otherwise ignored the comment. “Alright, now that we’re here—Wait, hold on. What the hell are you hiding, Zaveid?”

Groaning, Rose marched over to where he sat against the great tree and snatched a bottle of whiskey out of his hand.

“Hey! Hands off, Shepherd! Do you even drink this stuff?!”

Rose ignored both Zaveid’s indignation and his question. She instead opted to inspect the bottle closely, turning it over and over in her hands as she inspected the label. “Hm… yeah, no doubt about it.” Having figured out what she needed to, she jerked her head over to glare daggers at her brutish Seraph.

“Zaveid! What did I tell you about staying away from our liquor?! This was clearly taken from the Sparrowfeathers’ inventory.”

He scoffed. “Come on, Rose. If they were nice enough to give us a free ride, don’t you think they would be willing to spare one of your seraphim some booze too? It’d be an offering, yeah? It’d be… Giving some spirits to us spirits! To boost our spirits!”

Lailah snorted. Rose did not.

“Just don’t do it again.” She chucked the bottle back to Zaveid, who scrambled to catch the sudden projectile, “And to answer your question, I’m not a whiskey person. I wouldn’t drink after you anyway. Damn, though, did you break into it fast…”

All Rose got in response from him was a shrug and a laugh.

“Shoot, I did drink right out of the bottle, huh. A shame—Eizen used to love this stuff, so it woulda been nice to pass around.”

“You’re the only one here who would drink whiskey, Zaveid,” Edna said. “Rose said she doesn’t drink it, Meebo’s too much of a baby for any drinks, much less whiskey of all things, I KNOW Lailah doesn’t drink, and me? Please, whiskey is disgusting. Let me pick out something next time.”

Mikleo blinked. “Wait… does that mean you drink, Edna?!”

“We’re sure having a tough time getting this meeting going, aren’t we?” Edna’s impatience was as clear as the sky above her. In one hand she gripped the handle of her parasol with just short of enough force to break it, and her normin charm had once more become naught but a stress ball for her other hand.

“Get on with it Rose. We’ve had enough distractions. Just tell us what we’re gonna do.”

“Alright!” She took a short but deep breath, then began. “This is a shot in the dark but I did think of a place to start. Do you remember a few of the seraphim that oversaw the trials? Like, the ones that used to be Shepherds?”

 _About time she got some semblance of a plan out_. Edna hadn’t expected Rose to get right to the point, but in retrospect she shouldn’t have been that surprised. Once she actually had ideas, Rose was usually pretty good about spitting it out quickly. Usually.

“Well, I’m thinking that, rather than consulting books and stuff, we should try to get more information out of the experts. Yanno, the ones that would have gone around purifying hellions n junk way before us?”

“…Well, that would be an excellent idea in theory, but…” Lailah started. “You do remember what happens to a human when they’re reborn as a seraph, right?”

“Ah.” Rose froze in place. Her answer to Lailah’s question was clear. Edna sighed, trying to make it sound as condescending as possible. She had forgotten as well in her excitement, but she shouldn’t have and nor was she about to make anyone else aware of her folly.

“An admirable effort, but still a miss,” Edna chided. “You’re right about books probably being useless though. Seraphim know more about this kind of stuff, and they sure aren’t gonna be writing much of anything. That’s human work.”

“That doesn’t put Rose’s idea out of the question at all though,” Mikleo interjected. “Remember: those men at least were aware of who they used to be. And since they were Shepherds at one point, they would have had seraphim with them as well. Who would have known just what their Shepherd had done during his life, even if the Shepherds themselves no longer remembered.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to hunt out those seraphim ourselves then?” Zaveid asked. “They wouldn’t have filled ‘em in on _everything_.”

“True,” Edna said. “It’s not like we can always count on even each other to share everything either.” _And a particularly fitting point coming from you, Zaveid_ , Edna wanted to add. As much as she loved taking jabs at him though, she REALLY would rather have not brought up that whole “promise” issue in front of everyone else.

As she said though, the entire group in general really was pretty bad about keeping important secrets from each other. Lailah got a pass for most of her secret keeping, of course; there’d be no use for her to literally kill herself by breaking those oaths. Everyone else, though… not so much.

“Well, that’s just more than enough reason to track everyone down then, right?” Rose replied. “The former Shepherds and their seraphim both. We’ll just have to talk to as many of them as we can, because one’s always bound to know things that the other doesn’t!”

“That said though…” Mikleo looked off into the distance from where they came. “I wish you would have told us your exact plans sooner. Because where we are right now, we’re pretty far away from all four of them. …And we would have been able to save a lot of time by turning back and going to Lefay right when you got the idea.”

Rose’s face went blank once more. She reached into one of their bags to pull out a map and examine the markings. Igraine, Morgause, and Guinevere were all on ends of Rolance far away from anywhere in Hyland, but especially far from where they stood now in Marlind. Guinevere in particular was quite literally on the other end of the continent. The closest shrine was Lefay, and they had only left the city nearly adjacent to it a few days ago. Not to mention, if they would have wanted to most efficiently go from shrine to shrine as needed, that would have necessitated going to Lefay first.

In other words, they never needed to leave the Ladylake area in the first place.

“… _Ah_.”

Rose was left at a loss once again. “W-well, that’s okay!! I got the time I needed with the Sparrowfeathers, and it would have been really weird to hop off midway too. And this means we might be able to visit Alisha again on the way there too, and she could maybe help us with crossing the border if we need the help for the other three shrines? I mean, there’s that cave, but it’s really gross and a pain in the ass to get through, and it’s got all those zombies, and, uh…” She trailed off mid-sentence to replace her excuses with nervous laughter.

“You might want to try and get those ideas of yours sooner,” Edna suggested. “I know dragon purification isn’t exactly easy business to figure out, but talk about a lot of backtracking you made for us with that indecisiveness.”

“W-who said I only just now figured that out?!” Rose sputtered. “I just—”

“Honestly, it’ll make you look a lot better if you just admit that you only thought of it now,” Edna interrupted. “You’re a scheming human for sure, but not the kind who’d purposefully set this up just to spend more time with her old guild.”

“Edna is absolutely right. I’m a bit ashamed to admit, but I hadn’t thought of contacting the guardian seraphim either until you brought it up,” Lailah added. “It just goes to show you how few leads we have to go on.”

Zaveid shrugged. “You called this first idea of yours ‘a shot in the dark’, and that’s a pretty damn good way to put it. It ain’t easy to figure out just where to try and shoot when you have nothing to go on. So just be happy you took the shot at all.”

Rose stared blankly at her seraphim for a scant few seconds, then burst into far more confident laughter than her previous bout. ”Yeah, that’s right! I’ve already gotten a lot farther than most other folks who’ve wanted to do this, I’ll bet!”

“So, does that mean we’re going to Lefay first?” Mikleo inquired.

“Hell yeah we are!” Rose cheered. “And like I said, we can maybe stop by and see Alisha again, and who knows? I know that seraphim aren’t really the book writing sorta folk, but you’re enough of a nerd Mikleo! Why don’t we send you through the royal library while we’re talking to, uh… Whatshisname!! At the shrine!!!”

“His name is Altul, and I’m coming with you,” Mikleo insisted. “I’m not going to let you go off on your own to possibly get killed, and I’m _definitely_ not going to stay back to do all the reading for you.”

Edna smirked at his words. “Don’t you want to see what’s in that library though? It’s calling to you, I bet. ‘ _Hey Meebooo. Read uuusss. We have ruin diagraaams_!’”

“Would you cut that OUT?!?!” Mikleo groaned. “Rose, we should check before setting off again to make sure we have enough rations on hand.”

“You’re _that_ excited to get back to Ladylake and have at that library, huh?” Rose jeered.

“Of course; there’s still plenty of things I want to read there.” Mikleo answered. “But that’s not why I’m asking, and I am NOT going to be able to do it if you two are breathing down my neck for it the whole time!”

“Then are you _sure_ you don’t want us to just leave you in there?” Zaveid asked. “You’d have a whole day to yourself in that place, and then some!”

“That would be pointless. As Rose’s seraph, I’m supposed to be at her side helping her out just as the rest of you. I’ll gladly have a look at the library later, but you’re not leaving me anywhere.” Mikleo started for the shops without waiting for any further commentary.

Edna chuckled just a little as he stormed away. That boy tried to keep a respectable impression going, but he always was incredibly excitable. Through and through, just the dweeb she had pinned him to be from the start.

At the very least though, he _was_ reliable enough. Rose was lucky to have at least him and Lailah on her side, Edna thought to herself.

“I do wonder what that library might have, though…” Lailah pondered. “I never have gone through it myself.”

“Then go look at it with him,” Edna said. “ _After_ we’ve finished up our business with Altul.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spend the last author note apologizing for the almost month delay, and right after that we get a nearly TWO month delay.
> 
> Uhhh. Sorry about that. I have nothing to blame this on but procrastination and work ethic issues. ...Also the fact that I was having more than a bit of trouble connecting point A to point B as far as "stuff from later in the fic I've already written" goes. I should be good now tho, knock on wood!!


End file.
